Introduction

The present essay describes the Mass as celebrated in Latin
Christianity during the Middle Ages. It assumes the full complement
of clergy (priests, clerics in what are known as "minor
orders," and non-clerical assistants) needed to carry out
the complex ceremonies of the Mass at a cathedral or large monastic
church. A choir of monks or canons under the direction of the
cantor provided all of the music, solo and choral. This would
have been sung in chant but occasionally embellished by simple
improvised polyphony. In a house of women religious all of the
musical roles would have been assumed by the nuns, but ecclesiastical
custom required that the ministers serving at the altar be male.

The form and essential components of the medieval Mass were
stabilized during the Carolingian era, thanks largely the organizing
zeal of Charlemagne and the efforts of monastic liturgists like
Alcuin and Benedict of Aniane. This Franco-Roman liturgy, as
it is known to modern scholars, spread throughout Europe, carried
to the North by missionaries who preached the Christian faith
to Germanic tribes.

Although the general outlines of the medieval Mass can be
confidently described, specific reconstructions of how the liturgy
was celebrated at a given time and place can be complicated by
the nature of the extant evidence. In the early medieval liturgy
each of the main participants had a separate book that contained
only the texts proper to his office. Not until the tenth century
was there evidence of a tendency to assemble the disparate components
in a single book, the missal, which a priest could use to celebrate
Mass without assisting ministers. Thus evidence must be culled
from a wide range of sources. Full understanding of the medieval
Mass requires awareness of the historical evolution of its components,
the framework of the liturgical year, the texts and music which
expressed the meaning of its feasts, the ceremonial movements
and gestures essential to its performance, and the often splendid
vestments worn by the principal participants in the Mass liturgy.

The Early Development of the Christian
Liturgy

Any overview of the early history of the Mass will of necessity
be sketchy and incomplete, both because of the dearth of documentation
and because of the vast range of theories that have been proposed
to interpret the evidence. Thus the development of the Mass in
the earliest centuries of the Christian era can be presented
only in the most general outline. Earlier scholars, whose views
continue to be repeated in syntheses of liturgical history, endeavored
to trace essential components of the Mass liturgy through the
New Testament back to its Jewish "roots." Recent research,
which is still somewhat controversial, tends to downplay the
Jewish heritage of the Christian liturgy, except for its pervasive
use of the book of Psalms from the Hebrew Scriptures.

Jesus and his followers observed the Sabbath and the annual
festivals. The first Christians were also predominantly Jews,
but gentiles quickly attained equal rights to have the gospel
preached to them. They were not obliged to observe Jewish ritual
practices, and they probably knew nothing of Jewish temple ritual
or the synagogue. Even within Judaism, animosity between those
who accepted Jesus of Nazareth as the promised Messiah and those
who rejected this claim created deep divisions. The existence
of these tensions have raised questions about how Jewish liturgy
of the first century could have provided a notable foundation
for early Christian worship. Temple worship did not survive the
destruction of Jerusalem in 70 AD by the Roman general (and later
emperor) Titus. Animal sacrifices, the principal Judaic expression
of submission to God, ceased immediately without a record of
how they were carried out. The obvious fact that such rituals
had nothing in common with the way Christians worshipped in New
Testament times should not be overlooked. Evidence of the synagogue
as a nexus of Jewish liturgy has been preserved only from a much
later period: the first Jewish prayer book relevant to synagogue
services dates from the late ninth century A.D.

The presumed "liturgical" information transmitted
in the New Testament is sparse. Christians participated in the
"breaking of the bread" (Acts 2:46 and 20:11), and
the writings of St. Paul allude to early Christian Eucharists
(see 1 Cor 11:23-28). Assumptions that poetic passages in the
epistles by or attributed to the apostle Paul were liturgical
"hymns" sung by early Christian communities cannot
be confirmed: sometime poetic texts are just that-the spontaneous
creations of their authors. Post-apostolic information, fragmentary
and from diverse geographical areas, cannot be assembled into
a coherent whole.

Sources of liturgical information, generally known as "church
orders," survive from later periods. Among the most important
of these are the Didache [1st-2nd c., Syria], the Apostolic
Tradition [ca. 215, from Rome?], the Teaching [Didascalia]
of the Apostles [ca. 230, Syria], the Apostolic Church
Order [ca. 300, Egypt], the Apostolic Constitutions
[ca. 380, Syria], the Canons of Hippolytus [336-340, Egypt],
and the Testamentum Domini [?5 c., Syria]. These heterogeneous
documents contain disciplinary prescriptions as well as more
or less complete descriptions of Eucharistic liturgies and the
conferring of the Sacraments (Baptism, Holy Orders).

These documents originated over a wide geographical area (Syria,
Egypt, North Africa), and the surviving Syriac, Greek, Coptic,
and Ethiopic versions represent translations (often incomplete)
of lost originals. Experts are sharply divided on the question
of interrelationships among them, a question rendered more problematical
by the confused history of their transmission. Possibly accidental
survivals cannot, moreover, be construed as representative of
the full range of ways in which early Christians worshipped.
Their authority thus remains uncertain. Do they merely reflect
the plurality of liturgical practices that pervaded early Christianity?
Given the pluriform nature of Christian belief in the post-apostolic
age, lack of uniformity in liturgical matters would hardly be
surprising. In addition, these predominantly Eastern sources
are so heterogeneous that they can only with caution be linked
to the development of the Western Latin liturgies.

Structure of the Mass

The Mass may de divided into (1) the liturgy of the Word and
(2) the liturgy of the Eucharist. While this terminology is neither
ancient nor medieval, it conveniently describes the twofold structure
of the central act of Christian worship in the Middle Ages and
for millions of Christians today. The liturgy of the Word was
earlier known as the "Mass of the catechumens," because
at one time the unbaptized were dismissed at its close. The liturgy
of the Eucharist was called the "Mass of the faithful,"
since those who had been baptized remained. As will be described
below, the first part of the Mass was gradually enlarged with
the addition of chants. The second part of the Mass focused on
the prayer of consecration, known as the "canon," said
quietly by the priest- celebrant at the altar. The Mass concluded
with the distribution of communion and the dismissal of the congregation.

In the mid-second century, a Roman apologist for the Christian
faith, Justin, described a Sunday gathering of the Christian
community during which passages from the "memoirs of the
apostles or the writings of the prophets" were read "as
long as time permits." The "memoirs" were most
likely reminiscences of Christ's ministry on earth recorded in
the gospels, but the "prophets" might have been contemporary
Christian authors rather than the seers of ancient Israel. Whoever
presided at the gathering, most likely the bishop, commented
on the "beautiful things" that had just been read.
Justin also described the celebration of the Eucharist that followed
this service of readings.

It is not too difficult to imagine that, during the centuries
when the Christian Church's existence (or at least its well-being)
in the Roman world could at any moment be threatened by imperial
disfavor or persecutions, the development of ostentatious liturgical
observances was out of the question. The modest size of Christian
gatherings and the periods of persecution when all worship was
de facto clandestine did not encourage ceremonial display. Indeed,
the very idea of an elaborate "liturgy" would not have
occurred to the Church's leaders before the edict of toleration
promulgated by Constantine after he defeated his rival, Maxentius,
in 312.

The process that transformed simple meetings of edifying readings
and a reenactment of the Last Supper into the evolved eucharistic
liturgies of the Eastern and Western churches required many generations.
Prayers, scripture readings, and music gradually became embedded
in a ritual of increasing complexity. Concurrently, the liturgy
became more "clericalised," a process accelerated by
the ever widening gap between the developing romance dialects
and Latin, henceforth the language of Western liturgical worship.
Speakers of Germanic vernaculars who converted to Christianity
would have encountered insurmountable barriers to the understanding
of prayers and chants in an utterly foreign tongue.

Sources

As noted earlier, the earliest textual and musical sources
of the Mass liturgy are not comprehensive books with all the
necessary chants, readings, prayers and ceremonial instructions.
Instead, each major participant had a book that contained only
his part only. (In what follows the reader must keep in mind
that each medieval liturgical manuscript--copied out by hand,
as the name implies--is a unique product, designed to fulfill
the needs of the monastery or church for which it was copied.)
The celebrant's book containing the prayers he was required to
say was called a sacramentary. The scripture readings
(if they were not simply read from a Bible) would be contained
in an epistolary or an evangelary, depending on
whether the text of the prescribed reading came from the epistles
or the gospels.

The cantor and choir would have at their disposal a gradual,
of which the earliest examples (9th c.) contain only the texts.
Later, staffless "neumes" indicating the course of
the melody were added, but these served only as a mnemonic aid
to recall a melody already committed to memory, at least in its
general outlines. Only with the careful heightening of these
neumes and the development of the staff did it become possible
to decipher an unknown melody. Most of the chant books from the
early Middle Ages are so small that they could have been read
by only a few singers at a time. Whatever larger groups of singers
performed would have been committed to memory. The large chant
books seen in museums (and the single sheets offered for sale
by antiquarian dealers) date from a much later period (14th-17th
centuries); they enabled a larger number of singers to gather
around the lectern and sing. Most liturgical books are furnished
with titles and instructions written in red and known as "rubrics"
(from Latin rubrica, red ochre).

Additions to the "core" repertory of Gregorian chants
for the Mass could either form a section of a "normal"
chant book or be transmitted separately in special books. These
books were known as tropers, prosers, or sequentiaries, depending
on the type of addition or insertion, which could be textual,
musical, or both combined. These additions, varied expressions
of what has been called the "troping principle," will
be discussed below.

Gradually, all of the texts necessary for the celebration
of Mass (prayers, readings, chants) were gathered together into
a single volume called the "missal." This development
was engendered primarily by the increase in the number of Masses
celebrated by a single priest with the assistance of a single
acolyte-server. It has been claimed that the term "private
Mass" derives from the fact that such a Mass was "deprived"
of the normal chants and ceremonies of a solemnly celebrated
Mass. (The purpose that was served by missals with fully notated
chant texts is a question that remains to be resolved.)

The Ordinary and the Proper of the Mass
- An Overview

Some of the spoken and sung texts of the medieval Mass remained
virtually the same throughout the year. These are known as the
Ordinary of the Mass. Variable elements that changed according
to the feast or liturgical season belonged to the Proper
of the Mass. Every Mass contains chants of the Ordinary and of
the Proper. (The polyphonic Masses of the Renaissance and the
orchestral Masses of Haydn and Mozart set only the five standard
texts of the Ordinary, though sometime the Credo is omitted.)

The most important of the fixed spoken texts was the canon,
a long, multi-sectional prayer that included the words of consecration:
"This is my body ... This is my blood." The canon was
introduced by the chanted preface, whose text varied slightly
according to the feast (Christmas, Easter, Pentecost, Apostles,
etc.) or season (e.g., Advent, Lent). On certain solemn observances
(Christmas, Holy Thursday, Easter, etc.) part of the canon itself
was modified to make allusion to the feast. For example, on Holy
Thursday, when the liturgy commemorates both the institution
of the Eucharist and Jesus's betrayal, the prayer that begins
"Hanc igitur" contains the insertion: "Therefore
this oblation of our service and of all thy family, which
we offer to thee in memory of the day on which our Lord, Jesus
Christ, entrusted the mysteries of his body and blood to be celebrated
by his disciples, we beseech thee to accept ..."

Three prayers (collect, secret, postcommunion) were
chanted aloud (in the case of the secret, only its conclusion)
by the priest to a simple melodic formula (examples in Liber
Usualis 98-102, but not all of the melodies have medieval
authority). These prayers, of which many hundreds exist in the
Western Mass liturgy, formed part of the Proper, since they varied
every Sunday, on the weekdays of Lent, on all feasts of the Lord,
and for the celebration of saints' days. They were not interchangeable;
the collect was a general intercession near the beginning of
the Mass, the secret recited just before the preface referred
to the presentation of offerings, and the postcommunion gave
thanks for the reception of the Eucharist.

At many points during the Mass the celebrant also recited
to himself personal prayers, either expressing his unworthiness
or referring to the symbolism of the ritual action being performed.
Some of these prayers found their way into the Roman Missal (printed
in 1570 and obligatory in the Roman Catholic church for the next
four hundred years), but they were almost entirely eliminated
from the new Roman Catholic liturgy implemented in 1963 after
the conclusion of the Second Vatican Council.

The epistle, a reading from one of the letters attributed
to Paul or the apostles, and the gospel were also part
of the Proper. On many Lenten weekdays passages from the Old
Testament replaced the epistle. It was the deacon's prerogative
to chant the gospel, while the epistle could be chanted by any
cleric in minor orders.

The chants of the Mass-choral and solo-were also divided into
Ordinary and Proper items. The Ordinary included the Kyrie,
Gloria, Credo (sung only on Sundays and the most important
feasts), Sanctus, and Agnus Dei. The deacon's brief
dismissal chant ("Ite missa est" or "Benedicamus
domino") with its response "Deo gratias" may also
be considered part of the Ordinary. The numbers of pieces in
collections of Ordinary chants tended to be small until the eleventh
century, when a wave of interest produced a large number of new
melodies for all of these chants except the Credo.

The texts of the Ordinary were invariable, except insofar
as they were supplemented by additional texts called "tropes."
These supplied a theological interpretation of the traditional
chant text or "properized" it by inserting phrases
that referred specifically to the feast being celebrated. (See
below at the discussion of the Sanctus.) The Proper chants included
the introit, gradual, alleluia, (replaced by the tract
in penitential seasons or days and at Masses for the dead), offertory,
and communion. Sometimes a sequence was sung following
the alleluia, but enthusiasm for these hymnlike pieces waned
until all but five were eliminated in the sixteenth century by
the liturgical reforms of the Council of Trent. Proper chants
were also provided with tropes to enhance the solemn celebration
of a feast.

The following Table indicates the distinction between Ordinary
and Proper items, and it illustrates how the parts of the Mass
were divided among the various participants.

The Liturgical Year

The distinction between the Proper and the Ordinary of the
Mass depends on the fact that some parts of the liturgy remained
constant throughout the year, while others changed according
to one of two concurrent annual cycles called respectively the
Temporale and the Sanctorale. The liturgy of the Latin Church
favored prayers, readings, and chants whose texts made specific
reference to (i.e., were proper to) the liturgical observance,
whether a feast commemorating one of the events in Jesus' life
or in celebration of a saint's feast day. (The eastern liturgies-Greek
and Russian-have fewer variable texts for the Sunday eucharistic
liturgy.) Although the liturgical year begins on the first Sunday
of Advent, four weeks before Christmas, it will make more historical
sense to explain how its organization is founded on the date
of Easter.

The feasts of the Temporale are based for the most
part on the movable date of Easter which, according the calculation
fixed by the Council of Nicaea in 325, must be celebrated on
the Sunday following the first full moon that occurs after the
vernal equinox (defined as March 21). This is not as simple as
it sounds. It requires the coordination of two different and
independent astronomical cycles, the solar cycle of approximately
365.25 days and the lunar cycle of approximately 29.5 days, with
an artificial seven-day division (the week) that relates to neither.
[Important to the calculation was the "age" of the
moon (luna), numbered from the new moon (luna i),
thus making the full moon at the middle of the cycle luna
xiv.] Not only was the calculation of all the variables itself
difficult, but in the early centuries not all churches agreed
about the earliest and latest dates of the 29-day spring lunar
cycle on which Easter could be celebrated. Not all accepted a
date as early as luna xv (the day immediately following
the full moon) or as late as luna xxv. The latter date,
for example, made Good Friday coincide with the annual festivity
of the "birth" of Rome-an unappetizing penance for
fun loving Romans!

The year 2000 may serve to illustrate of the dates of the
Temporale. In 2000 the date of Easter falls very late in the
year (23 April). The full moon occurs on 19 March, but this date
falls two days before the ecclesiastical equinox. The next full
moon, the first one after the equinox does not occur until
Tuesday, 18 April, and hence Easter falls on the following Sunday.
(Easter can fall no later than 25 April, the date when it will
be celebrated in 2038.) The date of Easter fixes the beginning
of Lent on Ash Wednesday, forty days before (8 March).

Until the most recent reform of the liturgical kalendar, Lent
was preceded by a penitential season of lesser severity marked
by three Sundays known respectively as Septuagesima, Sexagesima,
and Quinquagesima. (Were these still observed in the year 2000,
they would have been observed on 20 and 27 February and 5 March,
respectively.) Exactly forty days after Easter is the celebration
of the Ascension, a commemoration of Jesus' farewell to his disciples
and departure into heaven. The sending of the Holy Spirit on
the disciples is the theme of the feast of Pentecost Sunday,
ten days later (11 June). During the high Middle Ages the Sunday
after Pentecost began to be celebrated as the feast of the Holy
Trinity.

The remaining Sundays of the Temporale were variously numbered:
(1) after Pentecost, (2) after Trinity, or less frequently (3)
after the octave of Trinity. (The word "octave" refers
to the practice of commemorating the most important feasts of
the Lord and certain saints for eight days after their occurrence--the
Office of the feast itself being celebrated again with lesser
solemnity on the eighth and final day of the octave, that is,
a week later.) The number of Sundays after Pentecost (or Trinity)
depended naturally on how early or late in the year Easter occurred.
The year 2000 has room for 24 Sundays after Pentecost (23 after
Trinity) before the new liturgical year begins on the first Sunday
of Advent (3 December 2000), four Sundays before Christmas.

Although Christmas is included in the Temporale, its date
does not vary; it is fixed on 25 December, the date of the winter
solstice in the old Julian calendar (so called after Julius Caesar,
who reformed it). The Christmas season also includes the feast
of the Epiphany (6 January). The Sundays between Epiphany and
Septuagesima were numbered from this feast. Some idea of the
complex vagaries of ecclesiastical calendric calculation may
be gathered from the fact that the festal dates of the Temporale
of 2000 last occurred in 1916; they will not occur again until
the year 2079.

The Medieval Experience of the Mass

The following discussion will take up in turn each of the
spoken, chanted, and sung parts of the Mass, placing them in
the context of the ceremonial actions that accompanied them.
This mode of treatment recognizes that the Mass, despite the
uncoordinated way in which it accumulated diverse elements over
the centuries, is not merely a jigsaw puzzle of textual and musical
elements. Long usage and familiarity created a unity that transcended
the individuality of its parts. One must, furthermore, try to
imagine the way the Latin liturgy might have been experienced
by clergy and laity during the Middle Ages (or even up to the
first half of the present century in Roman Catholic churches).
Although the language barrier and the clericalization of the
liturgy virtually excluded the laity from formal participation,
a fervent belief that God became truly present on the altar transformed
the experience for even the most unlettered worshipper. The richly
decorated vestments, the comings and goings of the ministers
and servers at the altar, the processions, the mystery of a sacred
ritual language, the chanting and the silence, the glow of candles,
and the fragrance of frequent censings created an encounter with
the divine which powerfully united clergy and laity.

Methods of Singing of the Psalms

Since the texts of most of the Proper chants of the Mass are
derived from the Psalter, a book of the Hebrew Scriptures consisting
of 150 poetic texts known as "psalms," it will be valuable
to understand something about the singing of psalms in late antiquity
and the Middle Ages. Three principal musical forms were used.
The simplest of these is known as direct psalmody, in
which the text of the entire psalm is sung, most likely to a
repeated formula (simple or elaborate), from beginning to end
without interruption. Most often performed by a soloist, a verse-by-verse
choral rendition amounted to the same thing. Responsorial
psalmody took a form that was undoubtedly very common in
the ancient world, and not only among the Jews. A soloist (cantor)
sang successive verses of a psalm, also to a repeated formula,
which he might have varied with impromptu embellishment. The
chanting of the psalm verses was interrupted every verse (or
group of verses) by a choral refrain drawn from one of the psalm
verses. By the end of the fourth century this manner of singing
the psalms had achieved great popularity in the West, having
been introduced from the Near East.

Also from the same region came antiphonal psalmody.
The way in which this was originally distinguished from responsorial
psalmody is a puzzle that has perplexed scholars without producing
any universally accepted answers. It seems that at first the
psalm verses were still the responsibility of the soloist, but
those who responded with a refrain were divided into two choirs.
Did they sing different refrains-or successive halves of a single
refrain? Was the text of the refrain a new composition, not taken
from the body of the psalm? All of these questions have been
raised without an entirely satisfactory resolution. Particularly
frustrating is the fact that, although the word "antiphona"
occurs with frequency in the writings of ancient authors, the
meaning (or meanings) of the term is never explained.

As understood by the Middle Ages, an "antiphon"
consisted of a short sentence or phrase, usually biblical but
on feasts of the saints often referring to events in the life
of that saint, which is set to a simple musical phrase. It was
intended to be repeated between verses, or groups of verses,
of a psalm. This practice declined, however, and throughout most
of the Middle Ages "antiphonal psalmody" signified
a mode of performance in which successive verses of the psalms
were sung by two choirs standing or sitting opposite each other.
(This manner of chanting the psalms dictated the arrangement
of the choir stalls that can be seen in many monastic and cathedral
churches.) The antiphon itself was sung only at the beginning
and end of the psalm. It has been suggested that "alternating
psalmody" might better describe this kind of psalmody, which
is used in the Divine Office, a series of prayer offices (Matins,
Lauds, Prime, Terce, None, Vespers, Compline) observed at fixed
times during the day.

Chants, Prayers, Readings, and Ceremonial
of the Mass

The introit chant of the medieval liturgy was a psalm
between whose verses the choir sang an antiphon in neumatic style
(2-5 notes per syllable, named after the notational signs discussed
above) chosen from the same psalm. Penitential days and seasons
had texts appropriate to the theme of contrition for sin; during
other seasons of the liturgical year (the Sundays after Epiphany
and Pentecost) text choices tended to be more generic. Some feasts
of singular importance and antiquity have texts from other books
of the bible; in these cases psalm verses appropriate to the
spirit of the feast would be chosen. The introit antiphon for
the first Sunday of Lent is psalmic: "He will call upon
me, and I will hear him" (Ps. 90-15-16), but the introit
antiphons for Pentecost ("The Spirit of the Lord has filled
the whole earth," Wisdom 1:7) and for the feast of John
the Baptist ("The Lord called me from my mother's womb,"
Isaiah 49:1-2) are not taken from the Psalter. In cases like
these latter two, the psalm verse chosen could vary from place
to place. For Pentecost one choice was "Benedicam dominum
in omni tempore" ("I will bless the Lord at all times,"
the beginning of Psalm 34); for John the Baptist, "Bonum
est confiteri domino" ("It is good to give thanks to
the Lord," the beginning of Psalm 92).

Since the purpose of the introit was to accompany the procession
of clergy from the vesting area to the altar, its length varied
according to need, depending on the size of the church building
and the number of clergy and assistants in the procession. The
antiphon was repeated after each verse, as shown in the following
schematic outline (Ant=introit antiphon; Vs=psalm verse; GP=Gloria
patri):

However many psalm verses were sung, probably no more than
two or three, the introit concluded with the doxology "Gloria
patri ... Sicut erat" (Glory be to the Father ... As it
was in the beginning) and a final repetition of the antiphon.
(A doxology is a text in praise of the Trinity, derived from
doxa, the Greek word for "glory". The lesser
doxology has just been mentioned. The Gloria of the Mass, to
be discussed below, is known as the greater doxology. Hymns-not
sung at Mass during the Middle Ages-usually conclude with a poetic
doxology.) In chant books of the Middle Ages the repetitive formula
(psalm tone) to which the psalm verses were to be sung was indicated
with a fragment of musical notation above the six letters EUOUAE.
These represented the vowels of the closing words of the doxology:
sEcUlOrUm AmEn. This indication sufficed for an experienced cantor
to choose the desired psalm tone that provided a smooth melodic
link to the ensuing antiphon.

The earliest description of the introit is found in the manuals
of ceremony known as Ordines Romani. Some of these describe
the papal Mass liturgy as it was celebrated early in the eighth
century. This papal Mass ceremonial, adapted to different conditions,
became the model for the medieval Mass liturgy, known to scholars
as Romano-Frankish because it was codified in the Frankish (Carolingian)
kingdom in the late eighth and early ninth centuries. At the
introit the choir--in the Ordines Romani the papal schola
cantorum--led the procession of clergy and assistants from the
vesting area (secretarium) at the entrance of the church
to the altar. At the entrance to the chancel (presbyterium)
the singers divided into two groups so that the pope and his
retinue could pass through their midst and mount the steps to
the altar area. At a signal from the pope or archdeacon, the
leader of the choir intoned the doxology that brought the entrance
rite to a close.

The second item of the Mass liturgy, the Kyrie, has
a complex and not yet completely clarified history. The words
"kyrie eleison" (Lord, have mercy) are typically the
response of a litany. (In this prayer form a leader sings or
says brief petitions, to which the congregation makes an invariable
response.) In the Western church litanies were almost invariably
associated with processions, mainly those of a penitential cast.
(The "kyrie eleison" response has been traced back
to ancient Roman rituals of emperor worship and the cult of the
sun, but its introduction to the Christian liturgy probably came
at a time when these were no more than distant memories.) The
Kyrie originated at Rome, where processions were daily occurrences
during Lent from at least the sixth century.

For these processions clergy and laity met at a "collect"
church some distance from the official "station" church
of the day where the liturgy was to be celebrated. (Often this
was the church of Sant' Adriano, the former meeting place of
the Roman Senate, the Curia Iulia, still to be seen at
the eastern end of the Roman Forum today.) Following a brief
prayer ceremony, the procession of clergy and people passed through
the streets to the singing of psalm verses alternating with refrains.
As the procession approached the stational church, a member of
the choir or a deacon began a litany, to which the people responded
"kyrie eleison". The exact texts of the invocations
are not known, but the music of the congregational response must
have been quite simple. When clergy and laity arrived at the
church and had taken their places for the liturgy, the pope (or
his substitute) summed up the petitions in a concluding prayer.

From a letter of Gregory I (590-604) it seems that this normal
litany form was observed on days when a procession from the collect
church took place. On other days only the invocations "kyrie
eleison" and "christe eleison" were used without
the invocations. The number of repetitions is not specified,
but it was apparently still flexible in the papal liturgy as
described in Ordo Romanus I a century later (as many as
18 invocations). At the papal Mass the Kyrie had become the property
of the trained singers of the schola cantorum.

The order of events just described-a procession to the stational
church with a litany followed by the ceremonial entrance of the
officiating clergy-ought to place the Kyrie before, not
after, the introit of the Mass. Most likely, the order that survived
in the medieval Mass, in which the Kyrie follows the introit,
reflects either the practice on ordinary days that had no procession,
or else the custom of simple parish churches. In such circumstances
the priest and any assistants would have entered to the singing
of the introit so as to be present for the Kyrie.

Not all of the earliest collections of Kyrie melodies present
them as the melismatic chants found in later chant books. (A
melisma is a long string of notes sung to a single syllable.)
Sometimes, Latin words are underlaid to each note of the melody,
thus rendering the chant syllabic (i.e., one note per syllable
of text). Presently, it is not clear whether the melismatic or
the texted versions are earlier. About 250 Kyrie melodies have
been preserved, most sung over a restricted geographical area
(i.e., there were few "international" Kyries). The
majority of Kyrie melodies follows the formal pattern aaa bbb
ccc'. Other schemata include: aaa, bbb, aaa', and aba, cdc, efe.
(The repeated letters mean that the phrase is repeated, while
['] indicates a slight melodic variant) The simplicity of certain
melodies printed in the Liber Usualis (56, 59, 62) give
the impression of being archaic. The dates of the earliest occurrences
of the melodies given in this book (hereafter LU; for a description
see "Sources" below) must be revised according to Margaretha
Landwehr-Melnicki (Das einstimmige Kyrie des lateinischen
Mittelalters, Forschungsbeiträge zur Musikwissenschaft
1 [Regensburg, 1955]), a catalogue of Kyrie melodies found in
the manuscripts of the Middle Ages.

The Gloria, used as a morning hymn in the Eastern church
and later in Gaul, is a text of very ancient origin. Bishop Athanasius
of Alexandria (d. 373) quoted the beginning of the hymn, and
the form that eventually became part of the Mass appears in Greek
in a famous fifth-century biblical manuscript, the Codex Alexandrinus.
Although intoning the Gloria was at first a prerogative of bishops,
it eventually became a chant sung on all Sundays (outside of
penitential times) and on all feasts. Most of the hymn, after
the song of the angels ("Glory to God") and the acclamations
of praise to God the Father ("Lord, God, heavenly king"),
is addressed to Christ ("Lord Jesus Christ, only Son of
the Father"). The Gloria closes with a brief invocation
of the Holy Spirit ("cum sancto spiritu").

More than five dozen Gloria melodies are extant. One of the
earliest, known as "Gloria A" (not included in the
LU) has very long melismas at three points, including the closing
"amen." Gloria melodies are generally neumatic; their
range and melodic style implies performance by a choir. The Gloria
is not sung to a repeated formula, but the recurrence of brief
melodic motifs is a feature of some melodies. Gloria XV in the
LU is an exception: its narrow range and constant repetition
of a formula pivoting around the notes E, G, and
a make it particularly suitable for congregational participation.
It may be a very old melody, but the written transmission of
the Gloria repertoire does not begin until the tenth century.

The collect, which sums up the principal theme of the
day's liturgy (hence forming part of the Proper), closes the
first portion of the "liturgy of the Word." Most of
these prayers date back to the fifth and sixth century: their
elegant succinctness marks them as perfect expressions of Roman
oratorical style. The majority of these collects are couched
in the same literary form. God the Father is addressed, using
an allusion to one of the divine attributes on which the petitioner
bases his plea. After the petition has been expressed, the prayer
closes with a standard formula" "through Jesus Christ
our Lord ..."

The typical collect consists of a series of syntactical units,
each closing with a rhythmic arrangement of words (5 or 6 syllables)
known as a cursus. The Latin collect for the Tenth Sunday
after Pentecost in the Roman Missal may serve as an example:
the cursus has been underlined. The last three phrases
end with an arrangement of accents known as the cursus planus
(/ . . / .). The first phrase ("-rando manifestas")
concludes with a cursus tardus: (/ . . . / .).

(O God, who manifesteth thy omnipotence by showing mercy and
forgiveness, increase in us thy grace, that thou wouldst make
sharers of heavenly good things those who are hastening toward
thy promises. Through Christ our Lord, who liveth and reigneth
with thee in the unity of the Holy Spirit. Amen.)

The use of the cursus imposes a harmonious balance on the
words and elevates the prayer above the realm of normal speech.
Both the use of this ancient oratorical device and the classical
Latin vocabulary of the prayers attest to their great age. The
collect is chanted by the priest to a simple recitation tone
that emphasizes the syntactical divisions of the text (LU 100-102).

Two extended scriptural passages, the epistle and the
gospel, occupy a central position in the first part of
the Roman Mass liturgy, a fact recognized in the modern term
"Liturgy of the Word." (The Gallican liturgy, replaced
by the Roman liturgy in the eighth and early ninth centuries,
had three readings at this point.) In apostolic and post-apostolic
times, there existed no fixed order or length for the readings-both
depended on the decision of the bishop or priest who presided
at the Eucharist. Most probably, the reading continued uninterruptedly
over several days or weeks until a book was finished. When the
liturgy began to commemorate events narrated in the New Testament,
only the specific passage relating to that event would have been
read.

By the sixth century an annual cycle of Sunday and festal
readings had developed. The earliest evidence of this cycle of
pericopes, as the extracts from the Scriptures were called,
is a list that identifies only the beginning and the end of the
passage appointed to be read. The complete texts were not provided,
since these would have been chanted from a biblical manuscript.
Since the earliest lists of epistle and gospel readings for the
Temporale developed independently of each other, little coordination
between the two can be demonstrated. Very soon, special books
were created (epistolary, evangelary) that contained only the
necessary pericopes. A ceremonial procession with candles and
incense accompanied the transfer of the Gospel book to the lectern
from which it would be chanted by the deacon. The book with the
gospel readings was sometimes covered with a luxurious binding
decorated with gold, silver, and gemstones.

These scriptural readings were sung to simple formulae that
clarified the principal syntactical divisions of each sentence
in order to facilitate comprehension as they were proclaimed
aloud. Most of the text was recited on a single pitch, but the
midpoint and close of each phrase were articulated by simple
melodic formulae. A special formula was employed for questions.
The standard tones and the rules for their application (not necessarily
with medieval authority) may be found in LU 103-109.

Two musical elements--a responsorial psalm and the
alleluia--were sung between the readings. Occasionally,
the texts of the readings and the chants seem to bear a relationship
to each other. In fact, the responsorial psalm has been interpreted
as a kind of congregational response to the first reading. A
psalm has been present at this point in the liturgy since at
least the time that Augustine served as bishop of Hippo in North
Africa (396-430); he frequently preached on its text. It is presumed
that the same practice prevailed at Rome. A cantor sang the psalm,
while the congregation answered after every verse or two with
an invariable refrain, thus a type of responsorial psalmody.
This kind of psalmody fulfilled admirably the needs of popular
participation in a society which was largely illiterate. The
responsorial psalm-and with it the related role of cantor-was
reintroduced to the reformed Catholic liturgy after the Second
Vatican Council.

Early in the Middle Ages congregational participation at this
point in the liturgy disappeared with the introduction of a very
different, much more elaborate chant, the gradual, of
such difficulty that it could be executed only by a skilled choir
and soloist. The musical form of the gradual consists of a respond
introduced by the cantor and continued by the choir, then a single
solo psalm verse, melodically embellished, and finally a repeat
of the respond. (This return of the respond was later abandoned,
the choir joining in on the last phrase of the verse.) Graduals
range from freely composed chants to tightly knit families of
pieces that share common melodic material. How the latter category
is to be analyzed has been the focus of considerable scholarly
debate linked to theories about how chant was transmitted orally
for centuries before it was written down. A group of nineteen
graduals, known as the "Iustus ut palma" group, is
based on a small number of musical phrases that function consistently
as either beginnings, continuations, or cadences. (They are conveniently
analyzed in Willi Apel, Gregorian Chant, 360.) Similar
procedures are used in other groups of graduals, which are classified
according to their "mode," a category determined by
the final pitch of the respond (D, E, F, G, or a).
The employment of standard phrases is more consistent in the
solo verses than in the responds (see Apel, 346-47).

In some cases, the alleluia acclamation with its verse
seems to be oriented toward the reading of the Gospel, which
follows immediately afterward. According to the enthusiastic
reports of some patristic authors, the singing of the word "alleluia"
enjoyed great popularity in the early church. This cry of exaltation
did not resemble in any way the later, far more elaborate Mass
chant. The alleluia of the Mass was intoned by the cantor; this
intonation was repeated by the choir and extended with a long
melisma ("jubilus") on the final syllable of the word.
The cantor continued with a (usually psalmic) verse, at the end
of which the alleluia + jubilus returned, divided between soloist
and choir. The earliest sources imply that the soloist sang the
entire alleluia + jubilus at the beginning, which was immediately
repeated by the choir. Because "alleluia" was so closely
identified with the joyfulness of Easter, it was omitted during
Lent and on penitential occasions.

There are about sixty alleluia melodies in the oldest sources
(9 c.), some used for more than one text. While the rest of this
core Gregorian repertoire remained substantially unaltered in
the Middle Ages, hundreds of new alleluia melodies were composed,
perhaps an indication that the small alleluia repertoire was
newer and not entirely fixed when Roman chant was introduced
North of the Alps in the late eighth century. One of the characteristics
found frequently in alleluia melodies (a feature considered to
represent later stages of composition) is the repetition of small
melodic figures in the melisma on the final syllable of "alleluia."
This feature can be found also in the earliest layer of alleluia
chants. The reappearance of a large portion of the alleluia melody
in the verse is also a notable characteristic of the newer alleluias.
David Hiley has observed that "the whole [alleluia] is held
together not simply by its overall responsorial form [alleluia-verse-alleluia]
but by a network of internal references and patterning"
(Western Plainchant, 136).

Many sequences were written in the Middle Ages. The
genre, which originated in the ninth century, underwent many
stylistic changes with respect to both text and music. (The name
itself refers to the fact that early examples used the long melodic
extensions of the alleluia jubilus melisma, which were known
as "sequentiae.") Only the last stage of development,
in which the sequence text resembled that of a rhythmic, rhyming
hymn, can be discussed here. The first two stanzas of the sequence
for the feast of Pentecost read as follows:

Veni, sancte spiritus,
Et emitte caelitus
Lucis tuae radium.

Veni, Pater pauperum,
Veni, dator munerum,
Veni, lumen cordium.

(Come, Holy Spirit, and send down from heaven a ray of
thy light. Come, father of the poor; come, giver of gifts; come,
bright light of hearts.)

The poetic rhythm is trochaic in both the stanzas of this
sequence, and the same rhyme scheme (AAB) prevails. Both stanzas
are sung to the same melody. Sequences differ from hymns in their
musical and poetic structure. Whereas hymns have a single melody,
which is repeated for each stanza, sequences differ from hymns
in that each pair of stanzas is sung to successively different
music. Thus the musical form of the sequence is: aa bb cc dd,
etc. Sometimes the opening and closing stanzas stand alone without
repetition (x aa bb cc ... z).

During penitential seasons, primarily the six weeks of Lent,
the Western church ceased singing the alleluia, considered an
expression of joy. In the Mass its place was taken by the tract.
(A tract was also sung at Masses for the dead.) The successive
psalm verses of the tract (as many as thirteen for the first
Sunday of Lent) were sung without interruption in the manner
of direct psalmody mentioned above. They were set to a rather
elaborate formula that could be adapted to text phrases of varying
lengths. From the musical point of view, the tracts are unusual
on that they are restricted to only two (of the possible eight)
modes. (A mode is an arrangement of tones and semitones associated
with a specific final. In the case of the tracts those finals
are D and G.)

The Credo of the Mass is a musical setting of the Nicene
Creed. Originally a baptismal formula, it was explained to the
newly baptized as part of their initiation into the Christian
faith. The text of the creed was approved by the Council of Nicaea
(325) and subsequently ratified by the Council of Constantinople
(381). The Credo owes its presence in the medieval Mass to two
separate secular interventions. Toward the end of the eighth
century Charlemagne added it to the liturgy of the Palatine Chapel
at Aachen (798), and in 1014 the Emperor Henry II insisted that
the pope add it to the Roman Mass. The pope acquiesced, diplomatically
pointing out to the emperor that the Roman see had never been
tainted by heresy and thus had no need of a constant reminder
of the truths of Christian faith. The days on which the Credo
was sung were few: Sundays, the principal feasts of Temporale,
and the feasts of apostles and evangelists. Few Credo melodies
have come down from the Middle Ages; their melodies were grouped
separately even as cycles of Ordinary chants began to develop.
The most common Credo melody (LU 64-66) is actually a formula
consisting of four elements ingeniously recombined in diverse
ways (analyzed in Apel, Gregorian Chant, 414).

The offertory was sung during the preparation of the
bread and wine for eucharistic consecration. (The name "offertory"
also signified the complex of priestly prayers and ritual actions-preparation
of the bread and chalice, mixing of wine and water, incensation,
washing of the hands-that took place at this point during the
Mass.) In its medieval form the offertory chant consisted of
a choral refrain in richly neumatic style with two or three neumatic-melismatic
verses sung by a soloist. The last portion of the refrain (the
repetendum) was repeated after each verse. The earliest
verifiable reference to singing at this point occurs in the eighth-century
Ordo Romanus I, which describes an elaborate ritual for
the reception of bread and wine from members of the Roman aristocracy
by the pope and his retinue. The offertory chant is mentioned
only when the pope gives the schola cantorum a signal that it
should be concluded. Three of the earliest ninth-century graduals
(containing the texts of the Mass chants without musical notation)
have two or three verses for most offertories. A late eighth-century
visitor to Rome thought the verse(s) notable enough-presumably
for their melodic development-to mention them among his brief
notes on liturgical observances at Rome (Ordo 22.21).

Some have hypothesized that the offertory, analogous to the
"processional" chants of the Mass (introit and communion)
was originally antiphonal but was transformed at some point into
a responsorial chant. The evidence for antiphonal origins is
weak. Nor is it clear, moreover, that offertory was originally
a "processional" chant comparable to the introit and
communion. Evidence for a Roman (i.e., papal) procession of this
type at the offertory is slight, though it might have been a
Gallican practice or one observed in the parish churches of Rome.
Neither medieval music theorists, nor the books called "tonaries"
that list chants by genre and mode, nor the medieval liturgical
manuscripts themselves consider the offertories anything other
than melodically elaborate responsorial chants. Although some
music history texts continue to repeat the notion that the offertory
was originally an antiphonal chant that somehow became responsorial,
no evidence exists to support this belief.

The offertories of Gregorian chant consist of a richly neumatic
respond with 1-3 verses in a more ornate style and lying often
in a higher pitch range. After each verse a portion of the respond
is repeated. The complete performance of an offertory with all
its verses could last ten or more minutes, depending on the tempo
chosen. Offertory verses are not preserved in all sources, and
they may never have been sung in some locales. With few exceptions
(Sicut in holocausto, Sanctificavit Moyses), the texts
of the Gregorian offertories make no reference to offering.

Willi Apel has pointed to the "reiterative" musical
style of the offertories-their tendency to focus on a single
pitch, to return to it frequently and to stress it by means of
repetition. They also manifest many instances of long and short
passages of repeated melodic material. One of the most extraordinary
(and hitherto unexplained) features of the offertory chants is
the repetition of segments of the text-a phenomenon occurring
nowhere else in the chant repertoire. The textual (and musical)
repetition takes either the form A-A (e.g., Precatus est Moyses)
or, more rarely, A-B-A (e.g., Domine in auxilium). Sometimes
the second statement of the melody is embellished. During the
singing of the offertory, the celebrant incensed the altar, and
then washed his hands while saying verses from Psalm 26: "I
will wash my hands among the innocent." As the offertory
came to a close the priest recited the secret quietly, raising
his voice only for its conclusion ("... per omnia saecula
saeculorum" [for ever and ever]) to which all responded
"Amen."

A brief chanted dialogue ("Sursum corda" [Lift up
your hearts]) between the celebrant and those in attendance introduced
the preface, which was chanted to a simple formula by the celebrant.
This always included a reference to the angels just before the
invariable closing phrase "una voce dicentes" (saying
with one voice) which led directly into the Sanctus. Given
the close connection between the preface and this chant, it has
been assumed that the Sanctus must be one of the oldest chants
of the Mass. This opinion has been challenged by arguments that
the Sanctus was introduced to the Roman liturgy only at the end
of the fourth or beginning of the fifth century. (See Bryan D.
Spinks, The Sanctus in the Eucharistic Prayer [Cambridge
University Press, 1991], p. 93-98 for a summary of recent research
on this point.)

Sources of the melodies, as is the case with other chants
of the Ordinary, are late (11 c.), but one of the simplest Sanctus
melodies (LU 63) appears to be a continuation of the preface
chant. There are about 230 medieval Sanctus melodies, many simple
enough to be sung by a congregation. Some Sanctus melodies are
attested in many regions, while others enjoyed only local currency-a
situation comparable to that of other Ordinary chants. Its text
falls into two parts, (1) Sanctus and (2) Benedictus, each concluded
by "hosanna in excelsis," a quasi-refrain that might
be set to the same music. In the later Middle Ages these two
parts were occasionally split, the second postponed until after
the words of consecration were said over the bread and wine.

The priest began the canon in a hushed voice while
the choir completed the Sanctus. At the end of this long, multipartite
prayer he chanted aloud the closing doxological formula ("Per
ipsum et cum ipso ..." [through him and with him]), followed
by the response "Amen." The priest then continued alone
with the singing of the Pater noster (Lord's Prayer).
This has been a part of the liturgy since at least the fourth
century, when it is mentioned in the catechetical instructions
attributed to Cyril of Jerusalem (d. 386). Shortly thereafter,
Augustine testified to its nearly universal use as a preparation
for communion, and Pope Gregory the Great (590-604) placed it
in its present position before communion.

At one time, the breaking or "fraction" of the eucharistic
bread was a matter of great solemnity. (Even today in the Byzantine
rite a specially baked loaf is ritually divided by the priest
before the start of the liturgy.) During the late seventh century
Pope Sergius I (687-701) introduced the singing of Agnus dei
by clergy and congregation during the fraction ritual. The chant
("Lamb of God, who takest away the sins of the world, have
mercy on us") would be repeated as long as needed to prepare
the bread for communion. With the introduction of unleavened
bread and individual communion wafers, the fraction of large
loaves was no longer a practical necessity, and the number of
repetitions was reduced to three. Beginning in the tenth and
eleventh centuries, the last of the "miserere nobis"
(have mercy on us) refrains was replaced by "dona nobis
pacem" (grant us peace).

Singing during communion can be traced back to the fourth
century. At that time, Psalm 34 (33 in the Latin Bible of the
Middle Ages) was the customary, if not invariable, choice as
a communion chant, primarily because of the appropriateness
of its eighth verse "taste and see that the Lord is good."
Gradually, other psalms were introduced, sung with an antiphon
related to the liturgical observance of the day. The number of
psalm verses sung depended on the number of communicants. With
the sharp decline in the reception of communion that took place
in the Middle Ages, the singing of the psalm verses ceased to
have any function and they were largely abandoned by the early
eleventh century.

Only about 40% of the approximately 150 communions of the
Gregorian tradition are derived from the Psalter. The gospels
were a favorite source of texts. Many of the communions are short,
simple antiphons, but others are as melodically elaborate as
introits. This and other factors have led to the hypothesis that
several successive compositional layers are represented in the
repertoire. A surprising large number of communions are found
with different finals in the manuscript sources (and are hence
assigned to different modes), a situation that implies a lesser
degree of fixity than other Mass chants (except for the alleluia,
as noted above).

After the reception of communion the liturgy came quickly
to a close. Each Sunday and important feast had its own postcommunion
prayer, sung by the celebrant, which linked the reception of
communion with the observance of the day. For example, the concluding
prayer for Easter reads: "Pour upon us, O Lord, the spirit
of your love, that you make of one mind those whom you have filled
with the Paschal sacrament." From the formula of dismissal
chanted by the deacon, "Ite, missa est" (Go, it is
sent), derives the name "Mass." The precise meaning
of the phrase remains obscure, but it has been shown that this
dismissal ceremony parallels those found at the conclusion of
other sacramental acts.

Excursus: The Troping of Chants of the
Mass

Reference was made earlier to the amplification of Ordinary
and Proper chants by the addition of tropes. These were phrases
of text and music (occasionally music alone) that amplified (and
in the case of textual additions) created a new interpretation
of the traditional chant text. The following Sanctus tropes give
a pronounced Trinitarian interpretation to the threefold "sanctus"
acclamation. The tropes are given in italics, the standard
text of the Sanctus in bold.

Holy,Maker and master of the world.Holy,Only Son of the same Father and equal LordHoly Lord God of hosts,Who wonderfully cleanses the sins of the world by nurturing
flames.Heaven and earth are full of thy glory.
Hosanna in the highest.

Upon us servants now have mercy,
[You] in whose praise the crowd of children devoutly sang:Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord.
Hosanna in the highest.

The reference in the last trope segment is to the singing
of the children at Jesus' entry into Jerusalem on the Sunday
before his death ("Palm" Sunday; cf. Matthew 21:9).

Ceremonial and Vestments of the Mass

The liturgy of the Mass consists of more than just the sung
and spoken word. It involves gesture, distinctive attitudes of
prayer and reverential postures (standing, kneeling), the use
of candles and incense, special vessels (often of precious materials),
and distinctive vestments. The architectural setting of a great
cathedral or monastic church formed the backdrop to what has
been described above. The ritual of the solemn Mass of the Middle
Ages derived in part from Roman-Byzantine court ceremonial of
late antiquity. With Constantine's bestowal of religious liberty
on the Christian church, its bishops, once the target of state
persecution, now received the honors proper to illustres,
the highest officials of the Empire. This dignity involved the
right to wear special insignia and the use of candles and incense
in carrying out official functions. (In the visual art of the
period Christ was often depicted with the accouterments of imperial
rank and the apostles as senators.) Many of the trappings of
this court ceremonial became "spiritualized" and incorporated
into the evolving Christian liturgy.

The careful and devout observance of an elaborate ceremonial
in all its particulars created a uniquely powerful impression
that transcended the meaning of the sung and spoken words. Though
the medieval laity's exclusion from what the twentieth century
would identify as "active participation" in the liturgy
was unfortunate, the ability of ritual to communicate the presence
of the divine was fully realized in the medieval Mass. The modern
term "Tridentine Mass," now used to signify the rite
approved by the Council of Trent in the sixteenth century, is
somewhat misleading. The Mass liturgy confirmed by this church
council, called to counter the effects of the Reformation, was
substantially a ratification of the liturgy handed down from
the Middle Ages. The thoroughgoing revision of the traditional
Mass liturgy of the Catholic Church that took place after the
Second Vatican Council removed many of its medieval elements.

Liturgical vestments changed little during the Middle Ages.
The priest first placed over his shoulders the amice, an oblong
linen cloth tied in place around the waist. The alb, a long tunic
reaching to the ankles and always white in color (from the Latin
word for white, albus), was a garment worn by all social
classes in the Roman world, retained as clerical vesture when
secular fashions changed. The alb was secured at the waist by
the cincture, either a rope-like cord or a band of fabric. The
distinctive insignia of clergy ordained to the "higher orders"
(deacon, priest, bishop) is the stole. The deacon wore it diagonally
across the chest from the left shoulder to the right hip. Those
who had received sacerdotal ordination (priest or bishop) wore
the stole in the familiar manner around the neck, either crossed
in front (priest) or hanging full length (bishop).

The distinctive priestly vestment was the chasuble, a large
bell-shaped garment that descended from a common Roman form of
outerwear. In earlier times (as depicted in the medieval mosaics
of Roman churches) it was a very ample garment, known as a planeta,
which had to be folded out of the way to permit free movement
of the arms. The planeta is usually depicted as a rather
dark-colored vestment in the Roman mosaics, but its color, that
of the stole, and of other church decorations changed according
to the seasons of the liturgical year or the feast. White is
color of feasts of the Lord, the Blessed Virgin, and all saints
who were not martyrs. Red is prescribed for Pentecost and feasts
of the martyrs. Violet, regarded as a symbol of penitence, was
used throughout Lent (from Septuagesima) and Advent. (In some
places blue was an Advent substitute.) Green is the color for
the season after Pentecost and the period between Epiphany and
Septuagesima. If a church owned gold vestments, these could replace
white on important festivals.

Medieval Interpretations of the Mass

Most medieval authors who discussed the Mass did not concern
themselves primarily with its description or historical evolution
(the subjects of the present essay). Following in the footsteps
of the early ninth-century commentator on the liturgy, Amalar
of Metz (c. 775-c. 850), they treated the Mass as part of a vast
allegory that linked the prophecies of the Hebrew Scriptures
with Christ's life on earth, culminating in his death and resurrection.
The pattern adopted by Amalar in his discussion of the Mass liturgy
involved an initial description of the ceremonial action (prayer,
reading, chant), followed immediately by an allegorical interpretation
of the same.

Amalar's mode of elucidation derived from the biblical exegesis
of Origen (d. 254), who perceived historical, allegorical, tropological
(moral), or anagogical (eschatological) significance virtually
everywhere in the Scriptures. Amalar and his emulators adopted
the view that whatever was perceptible to the senses pointed
inevitably to higher spiritual meanings. Citing the authority
of the English scholar Bede (673-735), Amalar explained the priest's
washing of his hands at the offertory-arguably a practical measure
if offerings were received from the congregation-as "the
purification of the heart through tears and compunction"
(Liber officialis 3:19.22). Amalar's allegorical understanding
of the Mass disturbed some of his contemporaries, most notably
the deacon Agobard and Florus, the bishop whom Amalar had replaced
in the see of Lyon. They arranged to have his teachings condemned
by the Synod of Quierzy (838). This hardly mattered, for Amalar's
influence continued to shape medieval liturgical piety. The most
important medieval author to engage in an objective, critico-historical
interpretation of the liturgy was Walahfrid Strabo (808/9-849)
in his Libellus de exordiis et incrementis quarundam in observationibus
ecclesiasticis rerum (Book concerning the origins and developments
of certain aspects of ecclesiastical observance).

While Amalar's explanations might today seem contrived and
even misguided, they manifestly enriched the experience of the
liturgy for many generations of Christians down to the twentieth
century. Each age spontaneously interprets and reevaluates the
liturgy according to its own instincts: the Protestant reformers
of the sixteenth century took sometimes drastic steps to reshape
Christian worship according to their own lights.

The modern restructuring of the Mass in the Catholic Church
embraced principles of liturgical reform not unrelated to rationalist
proposals voiced in the eighteenth century. Antiquarian views
that prevailed in the sixties succeeded in replacing medieval
piety with texts and practices derived from early Christian practice.
(The problems associated with ascertaining the liturgical practices
of the first four centuries of the Christian Church's existence
have been discussed earlier in this essay.) Presently, the pre-Vatican
II (i.e., medieval) Mass liturgy of the Roman Catholic Church
may be celebrated only with the express permission of the local
bishop. The heritage of the medieval Mass (the Latin language
excepted) has been best preserved with all of its ceremonial
intact in some of the Episcopal churches that define themselves
as "Anglo-Catholic." Such parishes can be found in
many major cities (e.g., Boston's Church of the Advent, New York's
St. Mary the Virgin).

SELECTIVE BIBLIOGRAPHY

Bradshaw, Paul. The Search for the Origins of Christian
Worship: Sources and Methods for the Study of Early Liturgy.
Oxford, 1992.

In this informative and wide-ranging evaluation of scholarship
in the field Bradshaw emphasizes the difficulty encountered in
interpreting the earliest preserved documents on the liturgy.
He reviews critically many of the current theories about the
origins of Christian worship; other books in the present bibliography
should be read with Bradshaw's conclusions in mind. His "ten
principles for interpreting early Christian liturgical evidence"
(ch. 3) could be applied to any historical discipline.

Inevitably dated, but still a very useful and informed introduction
to the subject.

Jungmann, Josef. The Mass of the Roman Rite. 2 vols.
New York, 1951-55.

This is a translation of the second German edition (1949),
which was updated several times by the author, finally in 1966
(Missarum Sollemnia: Eine genetische Erklärung der römischen
Messe, 6th ed.). The most exhaustive treatment of the subject
available-a difficult work not for the fainthearted. Much research
has been carried out since Jungmann's definitive work, but it
has not been superseded.

Klauser, Theodor. A Short History of the Western Liturgy:
An Account and Some Reflections. 2nd edition. Oxford, 1979.

An updated translation of the fifth German edition of this
classic history of the Mass liturgy, first published in 1965.

Every, George. The Mass. Dublin, 1978.

Not really a continuous history of the Mass but a series
of interesting essays on ritual, sacrifice, and the development
of the Roman Mass. Only about half the book concerns the Middle
Ages.

Harper, John. The Forms and Orders of Western Liturgy
from the Tenth to the Eighteenth Century: A Historical Introduction
and Guide for Students and Musicians. Oxford: Clarendon Press,
1991.

As the subtitle suggests, this volume is intended to serve
as a comprehensive introduction to the medieval liturgy as well
as to the "Tridentine" revision of the Roman Catholic
liturgy and the liturgy of the Church of England. In addition
to its treatment of the medieval Mass, it discusses the nature
of the liturgy, the liturgical year, and liturgical books. A
glossary and a select bibliography are included.

A broad and well-balanced coverage of Christian liturgy from
the apostolic age to the present. Its treatment of the early
material needs to be read in light of Bradshaw. The author, a
Lutheran pastor, includes material on liturgical theology. Chapters
1-7 cover the early Christian and medieval periods. Highly recommended.

Foley, Edward. From Age to Age: How Christians Celebrated
the Eucharist. Chicago, 1991.

A comprehensive, readable introduction that covers a very
broad range of topics including the music of the Mass. The terminology
is occasionally post-Vatican II, but medieval developments are
placed in their widest liturgical context. Each chapter has an
extensive bibliography of books and articles in English.

Cabié, Robert. History of the Mass. Washington,
DC: The Pastoral Press, 1992.

A well organized history of the Mass from the Last Supper
[sic] to the Missal of Paul VI by an eminent historian of the
liturgy. Distinctive for its inclusion of many extended passages
from important documents relating to the history of the Mass
and its interpretation in ages past.

Metzger, Marcel. History of the Liturgy: The Major Stages.
Collegeville: The Liturgical Press, 1997.

A brief, systematic survey of liturgical history from a post-Vatican
II perspective. It includes material on rituals other than the
Mass. To be recommended, but readers need to be aware that the
author regards certain practices of the past as distressing deviations
from the (current) ideal.

Palazzo, Eric. A History of Liturgical Books from the
Beginning to the Thirteenth Century. Collegeville: The Liturgical
Press, 1998.

An exceptionally well written and comprehensive survey of
a complex topic. Those who wish to delve further into the subject
should have recourse to Cyrille Vogel, Medieval Liturgy: An
Introduction to the Sources, trans. and rev. William Storey
and Niels Rasmussen (Washington: The Pastoral Press, 1986). The
New Grove Dictionary of Music and Musicians, second edition
(2000) has articles on all of the liturgical books with any musical
significance. See also the survey "Liturgy and Liturgical
Books" (Joseph Dyer).

For many years the standard work on Gregorian chant. Although
some of the historical conclusions need revision, the comprehensive
analyses of chant genres still merit study. Since Apel based
his work on the chants as they were available in the twentieth-century
Vatican editions, he devoted little attention to tropes and sequences.

An indispensable survey of over 600 pages that brings together
the insights of modern historical and musical scholarship. Broad
coverage of all genres of chant, chant notation, medieval music
theory, and non-Gregorian traditions. Of particular value for
those who read music are the author's transcriptions, commentaries
and analyses from manuscript sources.

Crocker, Richard. An Introduction to Gregorian Chant.
New Haven: Yale University Press, 2000.

A non-technical introduction to the subject by a noted scholar.
No music reading ability is assumed; a CD of music sung by the
author is included with the book.

Sources of Music and Recordings

The most convenient book with music for the Mass is the Liber
Usualis, published in many editions by the monks of Solesmes
from 1896 up until the years preceding the Second Vatican Council.
It duplicates no medieval book but provides music for all Sundays
and principal feasts of the year. The weekdays of Lent, all of
which have special Masses, are not included. For these one must
have recourse to the Graduale Romanum. The square notation
on four staff lines in these books is based on notation of the
twelfth and thirteenth centuries. (The vertical and horizontal
strokes are modern additions designed to facilitate a style of
performance known as the "Solesmes method." Although
unhistorical, this method produced many beautiful and evocative
recordings.) Dealers in second-hand theological books will be
able to supply Latin- English missals printed before 1960. These
contain all of the prayers and readings, as well as the texts
of the chants necessary for the celebration of the Mass throughout
the year.

A complete Mass with all of the chants of the Ordinary and
the Proper for the first and the third Masses of Christmas, including
the chanted prayers and readings, was recorded by the monks of
Beuron Abbey (Germany) in 1959. The Third Mass has been reissued
on a Deutsche Gramophon CD (427014-2). All three Christmas Masses
are available on the Motette label (50321-1, 50321-2, 50321-3),
as well as Masses for the feasts of Easter (50341), Pentecost
(50351), St Stephen (50331), St. Martin (50311), and the Assumption
of the Virgin (50361). Every year there appear many new chant
recordings and re-releases of older material. Several of the
new recordings incorporate new insights about performance practice,
particularly with respect to the rhythmic interpretation of the
neumes. Sometimes the medieval chant Propers are combined with
Renaissance polyphony for the Ordinary of the Mass. Chant recordings
are reviewed in Fanfare by Jerome Weber, who also compiles
an annual annotated list of chant CDs for the journal Plainsong
& Medieval Music, available in many university music
libraries.

Web Sites

Reaction to the reform of the Catholic Mass liturgy in the
early sixties spawned an enormous number of web sites in many
languages seeking to restore the so-called "Tridentine"
Mass. These can be accessed through http://www.unavoce.org.
For information, scholarly and practical, about Gregorian chant
and its performance, the best place to start is Peter Jeffery's
site http://www.music.princeton.edu/chant_html.
(Note: there is an underscore between "chant" and "html".)

The Abbey of Solesmes in France which, more than hundred years
ago, led the movement to restore Gregorian chant to its medieval
form has its own website (http://www.solesmes.com).
All of the chant books currently available on this site have
been adapted to the modern reform of the liturgy and hence do
not reflect medieval practice.

For other articles on music from the ORB encyclopedia,
consult the ORB
music index. The references for monastic orders can be found
on the Religious
orders page. A page on the Latin liturgy is planned
but has not yet been completed.

Copyright (C) 2000, Joseph Dyer. This file may be copied
on the condition that the entire contents, including the header
and this copyright notice, remain intact.